Small garden design: how to bring magic, mystery and romance into your garden
Demystifying the design principles, making your garden really 'work'. Plus: garden notebooks, a book giveaway, and book-related events in the UK and US
And a garden visit too….
It says this post will take 19 minutes to read but don’t let that put you off - it really won’t! There are loads of photos….
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‘Design principles’ is one of those phrases which sometimes can be a tiny bit off-putting, intimidating even, as you hear it dropped into sentences. Unity, harmony, scale - what do all these words mean? Rules? Theory? Things to learn? Help!
But when you view this phrase more as a name for the common thread of successful ways to weave your garden into that one place that you truly love, whether it’s a place filled with romance, mystery, magic, or all of these and more, ‘design principles’ starts to make sense.
Hello Gardening Minds, to members old and new, to those of you who have been here from the very beginning and those of you who have just joined - a great big WELCOME.
If you’re a new member and you’re working your way around this newsletter, click on this post to get a feel for the kind of thing that happens here.
In the Zoom, we also took a tour around the site - you can find the recording in the PS section below. This PS is a new housekeeping section whence you can skim in order to find links, recommendations, dates etc.
Small Garden Design Course
Today, in Week 7, we’re taking a look at the next task in the Small Garden Design course.
Remember, this course works for any-sized garden, so whatever the size of your plot, come and join in the fun! You can catch up on Sunday’s Zoom recording in the link in the PS section.
You can start this course at any time:
Here’s a round-up of everything we’ve looked at so far here:
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4:
Week 5:
Week 6:
Before we get onto gardens
Beloved stationery, Book news and RHS Chelsea Flower Show tickets
If you’re a Gold Member of The Gardening Mind, your name will have gone into the hat for the chance to receive two show tickets to come and spend some time on my garden with me at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May. Names will be drawn in the next two weeks and you still have a chance to get your name in the hat. Somebody WILL win these tickets!
Last week’s comment on notebooks struck a chord so can we have a quick minute on stationery before we get to gardens and flowers and buds? Yes buds…. buds are poking their noses out of the frozen soil. I love this time so much…. there’s a whole lot of anthropomorphising going on as I imagine all those bulbs under their solid compost layer all checking in with each other: ‘Is it now? Shall we go for it? HEAVE!’ And that’s just the bulbs. The trees are on their mycorrhizal telephone lines letting each other know that it’ll soon be time to shine.
While that dark silhouette of the copper beech might make it look as if there’s nothing going on, deep below the quiet surface, its root network and mycorrhizal fungi network are busy doing a whole lot of communicating with its neighbours.
So that stationery….
How cheering was it to hear your systems for notes and planning, and which make of notebook you like best. You had so many excellent recommendations, it made me take a look at what’s going on here. As you’ll see, I need a system - do you have a particular notebook system you recommend?!
Here’s what’s going on in my study. I say study; I dont know what it’s like for you but here, writing seems to happen wherever it’s most comfy/warm/best viewpoint. My desk and noticeboard in the study are so organised and they look all tidy and sleek and even photogenic, so of course I have to drift contrarily to other less-organised places. The armchair in the kitchen, the sofa by the fire, the stool by the oven… it needs to be a different place every day.
I just ADORE these piles of notebooks new and old. They’re so satisfying in their fullness and their emptiness. All those thoughts. All that potential……
Top right are my notebooks that are currently on the go, including some from Moleskine, Leuchtturm1917, Papier and The School of Life. I use some for gardens, some for design, some for writing, some for all of these. I love them, every single one, though I’m not sure I’ve ever really found the perfect system for which to use for what. Years ago, EVERYTHING would go in the one current notebook at the time (bottom left), treated like a kind of journal, and as I look at it now, I think this was possibly the best solution.
All the ideas are in one place; while I was snapping the photo, the pages of one fell open at a doodle for the small garden we’re looking at later in this post. This coincidence made me very happy.
But I do think a separate notebook for the garden can be incredibly useful. Storing up those notes over the years and seeing your garden’s progression and checking back on thoughts and ideas of years gone by…. wouldn’t a dedicated record in one place be useful to compare successes and failures, as well as interesting to look back on? I adore this one which was a present but I saw the price and so haven’t been brave enough to bring myself to write in it yet for fear of ruining it. I keep thinking I’ll save it up for the next garden, but who knows if and when there’ll ever be another? Seize the day and all that:
For the last few years, a lot of notes and ideas have been going into this diary/notebook combo:
Once you have one of these diaries from Noble Macmillan, you’ll never go back. Everyone who sees mine promptly goes and orders one. It contains a world of good empty pages: a diary, plenty of pages for notes, a gorgeous feel, nice and light and not too big. AND you get to choose a different colour every year.
I’ve been using them since 2019 - I went for orange this year but I’m just wishing I’d gone for another colour as it’s weirdly making me think I’m back in 2020 when I had the same colour. And to think I could have gone for purple… or light pink…. how satisfying their spines would have looked on the shelf. This is not an ad - I just love them.
Book news:
My new book The New Romantic Garden is available to pre-order here to arrive with you in February:
The book launch
The New Romantic Garden book launch has been announced: it’s taking place on March 11th in London and you can find more news on this, and a US date, in the PS below.
I’d love it if you could come and join me to celebrate.
This week’s book giveaway:
If you follow Notes on the app, you’ll have spotted that I’m following the micro-seasons outlined in this beautiful book, Nature’s Calendar. I love an almanac-y kind of book (did you have one of those ‘365 stories’ books when you were young? I need to see if I can find mine). Anyway, Nature’s Calendar very much has the feel of that. You can dip in and dip out, and each time you find something beautiful. I have one copy of this book to give away - just let me know in the Comments if you’d like your name to go in the hat.
Taking time to notice mosses, in detail, brings a new world into view.
Dahlias - does your mind explode when you look at the catalogues?
Whilst it’s like being in the very best cake shop ever as you browse through the dahlia availability, it can make you feel a bit whereonearthdoistart-ish. I’m doing the heavy lifting for you here:
Before we get to the idea of FLOW and today’s task, it’s time for a design tip
Here’s how to make a bit of that all-important mystery, and entice someone around your garden. As ever, it’s easy once you know how:
As you look around, everything feels just right. The colours, the architecture, the plants. It’s all pretty lovely.